Fixing the Darby Damage

Posted by Keli'i Kotubetey on September 28, 2016

Tropical Storm Darby hit our ahupuaʻa very hard on the evening of July 24, 2016. The whole pond flooded with water and poured out toward the ocean – an extremely rare phenomenon that probably hadnʻt happened in 50 years. In the two months following the tropical storm damage, our staff, volunteers, and visiting students slowly put the pōhaku back up and fixed the Darby puka. Enjoy the words of our Kū Hou Kuapā Coordinator, Peleke Flores, as he describes this restoration job. And below that enjoy some pictures captured during the construction process. E ola ke kua o Heʻeia!!

It took a combination of our gang, volunteers from community work days, and Halau Kū Mana about 5 full days to restore the fall from Darby. The only thing that was slowing us down was visibility under water while we were trying to retrieve the fallen pōhaku. Other then that, we pushed on through and got the kuapā back up and running again. Here are a few underwater and working shots of the restoration. Really shows how laulima really can make big work move quickly! Mahalo to all who helped us bounce back. Aloha